The Well-Tempered Ear

Classical music: Madison’s classical music critic Greg Hettmansberger has launched his own blog and has also been given a monthly slot on TV. Plus, this Wednesday night the UW-Madison Contemporary Chamber Music Ensemble will perform a FREE concert of new music

ALERT: This Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m in Mills Hall, the UW Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, directed by UW-Madison composition professor Laura Schwendinger, will perform a FREE concert of new works by “rising young stars.”

 On the program are: “Fluidity” by Yunkyung Hong; “Obnoxia” by Nathan Froebe; “Concerto da Camera II” by Shulamit Ran; Kay Ryan Songs by Laura Schwendinger; and a New String Quartet by Adam Betz.

Featured special guest performers  are pianist Christopher Taylor, cellist Leonardo Altino, Erin K. Bryan and percussionist Sean Kleve, of Clocks in Motion, as well as students Biffa Kwok, Saya Mizuguchi, Mounir Nessim, Steve Carmichael, Seung Jin Cha, Joshua Dieringer, Seung Wha Baek, Saya Mizuguchi, Erin Dupree Jakubowski and Yunkyung Hong.

By Jacob Stockinger

One of the Madison-based classical music critics who deserves your respect is Greg Hettmansberger (below).

Hettsmanberger has two news items to announce.

He has just launched his own blog called “What Greg Says.”

First, some background.

Since August, 2011 Hettmansberger has authored the blog “Classically Speaking” for Madison Magazine, and added a print column of the same name two years ago.

He was first published as a critic by the Los Angeles Times in 1988, and freelanced as a critic and features contributor for a number of newspapers and other publications in Southern California.

He began writing program notes in 1996, and is currently completing his 19th season as an annotator for the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Moving to the Madison area in 2001, Hettmansberger was the director of bands for Abundant Life Christian School until 2008.

Now Hettmansberger has also been tapped by WISC-TV Channel 3, a local CBS affiliate, to appear once monthly on a morning show (at 6:40 a.m.) to offer previews, reviews and news about the local concert scene. He will get 3-1/2 minutes on the third Wednesday of each month.

Hettmansberger is a discerning listener and a fine judge of musicians and music.

That makes him worth paying attention to. He always has important insights into performances by the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Madison Opera, the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, the Wisconsin Union Theater, the Overture Center and the countless chamber music groups in the area.

So perhaps you will want to bookmark his blog or subscribe to it.

The Ear will.

Here is a link:

https://whatgregsays.wordpress.com

Says Greg, in his typically modest manner, about his first major topic and posting:

“My blog space is up and running. In fact, I’ve posted twice. I still don’t feel fluent, but at least it’s serviceable, and my reviewing schedule begins in earnest this Friday.”

Presumably, he talking about a review of Friday night’s concert of works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Francis Poulenc and Dmitri Shostakovich by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (below top)and piano soloist Adam Neiman (below bottom).

Here is the latest post, a reminiscence of Pierre Boulez (below), the avant-garde French composer and conductor who died recently at 90 and who gave Hettmansberger a personal interview that he recounts in his blog posting:

https://whatgregsays.wordpress.com/2016/01/19/merci-monsieur-boulez/

Wish Greg Hettmansberger well and leave your words of  congratulations in the COMMENT section.